


Son of Gotham

by drelfina



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Under the Red Hood
Genre: Court of Owls, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2019-11-16 15:26:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18097019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina
Summary: Gotham brought him back to life. Coupled with Shiva's blood and all the lovely lovely assassin training, Jason would be the perfect Talon.if the Court can get their claws in him.Run Jason Run.





	1. Chapter 1

This reminds him of a joke: One ex-Robin walks into a bar. Turns out when the Court of Owls use bars, they hurt a hella lot more than bullets. 

What is his _life_? 

It had been kind of gradual, as Jason worked his way through Gotham's underworld, getting the feel for Gotham again, the way that he'd never really forgot no matter how long he'd been Robin, no matter how long he'd been away. 

There had always that old sullen seething violence, that he'd, despite having had been taken away to Stately Wayne Manor, felt under the Robin boots, blood seeping in his gauntlets even as he clung to the grapple line. 

Now as Red Hood, it seemed like it spoke more to him, vicious and possessive, clearer. What Gotham _Wanted_. 

Gotham was in his blood, everything always led back to her. 

So he was trying to clean the city up, the way the city whispered to him, knocking heads and shooting strategic assholes a new one until he could grasp crime by the neck. 

And it was going _great_. 

Right until a shadow tried to break his skull in 

And Jason had been trained by the World's Greatest Detective, first, and then tutored by the League of Assassins, he had a hell lot of shit up his sleeves. 

NO ONE should be taking him by surprise .

Except the shadow kept trying to pin him and was - impervious to fucking bullets and then Jason had to start running. 

_Jason Todd, the Court has judged you._

Fuck this shit. 

It wasn't quite so bad at first - he knew Gotham like the back of his scarred up hands okay, knew all the slippery alleyways and the rooftops, every damn scar of the rooftops that had taken a grapple hook and stayed. which roofs were slick and dangerous, and which would take him at a run. 

Except then the shadows came to fucking _life_ , a fucking bar slamming up against his chest hard enough that just a little harder it would have fucking taken his throat out, if he hadn't had to take just a little step higher on a random brick. 

He managed to roll, stab out and catch the shadow on the thigh, twist and avoid a pin. 

_Jason Todd,_ a hissed rasp. 

The shadow had fucking glowing gold eyes. 

Jason kicked out and forced himself to his feet, and leapt - 

except a knife stabbed through his calf, and he couldn't reach for the next roof ledge in time and he dropped - 

into a convenient dumpster that he hadnt noticed earlier but fuck it, it kept him alive, and he could roll out of the way before the shadows spawned another fucker and limp into the shadows. 

It became all instinct. 

No time to think. 

Jump, leap, grab at the brick, a rail, and duck at a flash from the moonlight. 

Cars screeched as he dashed across the road low enough to almost hit the tops of a bus, and at one point he actually dropped onto a truck before managing to shoot another grapple half a block away. 

The shadows kept coming. 

But it felt like the city was helping, throwing dumpsters and fire escapes in his way while he could still grab for them. 

He just had to get to his safehouse. 

just had to get home. 

*** 

"Look at how the City responds to him." 

"I knew the Gray Son was a mistake - this one has Gotham's blood." 

"and a pedigree of the Lady Shiva, too. Imagine what the Court can do, with this one as Our Talon." 

"Death has already lost its claim to him; he is more than perfect."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure I like this one, I'm more just taken with the idea of how fucked Jason's life would be if the Court of Owls decided to turn their sights on Jason rather than Dick. 
> 
> I mean come on. Jason could well have been SHiva's son, right? And as Willis' child, he's Gotham's child through and through the way that Dick isn't. 
> 
> I might rewrite this later, just wanted to post SOMETHING.


	2. Gotham's Son

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i was commenting back and forth with @KITTYNicki about headcanons for this particular fic... 
> 
> (you can see the thread [HERE](https://archiveofourown.org/comments/232390822)) 
> 
> but then hit upon a different headcanon when we were discussion Jason's parentage... what if he's actually Lady Shiva's and Ra's son?
> 
> Thread [HERE](https://archiveofourown.org/comments/233972539) and then this ficlet happened.

(Gotham has fallen in love with this child the way she falls in love with all her children, but this one is special, this one is HERS, the way that his mother and his father aren't his parents but his parents are Gotham and Gothamite, and for a brief moment, someone had considered writing UNKNOWN on the name of the parents on the birth certificate, and then wrote in _Sheila Haywood_ for the mother and this is the kind of Lie that is Gotham's, the way that Jane Doe and John Doe isn't, so this is Gotham's Son, the way that she hadn't had in such a long time and probably never will in a longer time.)

(This child, this son, this is _hers_ )

And then Ra's is Concerned that he has a Son. a Son! a True Heir! and then Shiva disappears into the seamy grimy underbelly of Gotham the way that only a woman who doesn't want to be found can, and Gotham has a way of swallowing such women, and many of them don't survive ( metaphorically or literally, it's capricious, it's Gotham) and when Shiva next shows up, she is no longer pregnant, she's free of a child, and Ra's... doesn't know what to think and Shiva won't tell him anything because why should she? Why should she tell him fuck all? She owes him nothing; after all isnt' your True Heir right there at your right hand, Ra's? Is Talia not good enough for you, that you must pimp her out to any man you think meets your criteria of Good Enough Heir?

So Ra's never finds his son.

Shiva doesn't tell - and as far as anyone else knows, she is never a mother

(and that's true - she is never a mother, she never brought up any child to her breast, never counted their breaths and their fingers and toes and looked into their eyes and thought, I must protect this life. )

(No. )

(Shiva is not that sort of person. Sandra Wusan might have been, once, a long time ago but that had died with her sister and revenge, and now she was Lady Shiva who birthed assassins and cities alike, and is ready to give them up just as easily.)

So does Ra's turn to Talia and realise she is his True heir? the one who he had raised in his beliefs? Or does he keep looking, looking for the true heir of his body?

Except is Jason really his, except mere biology?

Gotham had taken this child's mother the way Gotham swallowed many women.

Gotham had swallowed and taken his identity and rebirthed him Jason Todd, son of Willis Todd and Catherine Todd, except no, not Catherine Todd, but Sheila Haywood, but no.

Gotham birthed this child in Gotham Westside Hospital, a surprisingly clean, extremely well-equipped hospital despite its grimy and sad exterior, far away from the Wayne sponsored Gotham General.

Gotham birthed this child into Sheila Haywood's hands, taking her stillborn in one hand and delivering this child with another, and Sheila delivered this child to Willis and Catherine's waiting hands, and they, both of them Gotham born and bred, named this child Jason Peter Todd, after Catherine's father to try to buy back his favour for his wayward daughter.

Willis brought up Jason with his fists and smashed bottles.

Catherine brought Jason up with love, drugs and shattered shrapnel of dreams.

This is Gotham's love, vicious, cutting, poisonous, wound deep into Jason's veins.

And Gotham too, brought Jason up, on cold streets and stolen bread, with icy wind and oppressive summers, but always there is just enough to give him shelter somewhere.

Always there is a bus that might, if Jason can find the change, get him to a church which bleeds soup and charity.

Always there is a working girl who might take pity on this child, this child of Gotham, and give him a tip, maybe two.

Always there is a john who might be kind, one night, and let Jason stay in a room to sleep.

And always, the children of Gotham would help the Son of Gotham.

And one night, there will be a car in Crime Alley.


End file.
